Curling: Chess on Ice and other stories

The first Winter Youth Olympic Games are getting ever closer. Indeed, the torch has been lit in Greece, read about that here, see photo here, and it's on its way to Innsbruck.

Click on the image above, or here, to see what Eve Muirhead and Uli Kapp are saying about being 'curling athlete role models'!

It's not the first time that Eve has been an 'ambassador', see here.

On the subject of YouTube vids, I rather liked this short promotional video by Thomas van den Berk, about the Anette Norberg team, the current women's world champions. Have a look.

Thanks to Logan Gray for bringing it to my attention. The film has been shot, in part, in black and white, rather effectively too.

Not that I'm usually a fan of black and white.

Nor is Logan. With help from his sponsors at Loudmouth, Logan and friends - you will recognise some I'm sure - hit Glasgow town centre recently, suitably attired and all different, see below. Wonderful. I'm sure my home town has never seen anything quite like it!

For the record, it was less that two years ago that the Norwegian men's team made a fashion statement at the Vancouver Olympics, see here. And of course they ignited a healthy debate about what should be worn on the ice! The argument still rages between the 'curling is colourful' supporters, and those who prefer 'black bin bag' attire. I hope that the former will dominate in 2012.

Lighting up George Square. Photo courtesy of Logan Gray. Many more in his Facebook albums!

Vote for Anette

Sweden's Anette Norberg has been selected as a finalist for the 2011 Sportswoman of the Year (Team Sports Athlete) Award by the US-based Women’s Sports Foundation. You have until September 5 to vote for her at this page on Facebook. The instructions are in the second panel. (You have to 'Like' the Women's Sports Foundation first. When you do, it opens up the way to 'Like' Anette's photo which records your vote). If you are not on Facebook you can still vote. Find out how on this page.

It's great to see our sport get good publicity like this.

The photo above is by Leslie Ingram-Brown from last season's Capital One World Women's Curling Championship in Esbjerg. That's Scotland's Vicki Adams and Anna Sloan behind Anette. Vicki and Anna are members of Eve Muirhead's team for this season with Claire Hamilton. Good to see the team have their own Facebook page. Click here to see their team photos from their squad training at Greenacres this week.

Photo courtesy of Leslie Ingram-Brown

Olympic champions retire

One of the world's greatest curling teams is no more. Sweden's Olympic Champions Cathrine Lindahl, Anna Le Moine and Eva Lund (L-R above) have announced their retirement, with only their skip, Anette Norberg, indicating she intends to stay involved with the sport in the immediate future.

The announcement is not unexpected but it is always sad to see the end of an era. Two sets of Olympic Gold medals, two World Championships and a drawer full of European medals is quite a record!

The Curling News, as always, has the story here.

My photo of the Swedish women is from the Le Gruyere European Championships in Aberdeen in December last.

Armchair Olympics 16

I was thrilled to see Sweden win the Olympic Gold. It was a great game to watch, full of drama right to the last stone of an extra end! I've met skip Anette Norberg, third Eva Lund, second Cathrine Lindahl and lead Anna Le Moine a number of times in the past seven years and I've always been impressed by them. Greatest women's curling team ever - I'm right behind The Curling News with that assessment, see here.

Mind you, other great women's curling teams have come out of Sweden. I will always remain a big fan of Elisabeth Hogstrom and her team - I was just beginning to write about curling when Bettan was winning Europeans and Worlds in the early 80s. Then of course there was Elisabet Gustafson in the 90s. Another great Swedish skip/team.

But with two sets of Olympic gold medals, the Norberg team are the greatest, no question. Congratulations to them. To beat the home team, in Canada, in front of such a partisan crowd, many ignorant of the behaviour expected at say, a world championship, was a huge achievement, and sweet to watch.

I haven't been as emotional at 2.00 in the morning for many years!

The report of the game is here.

Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images © VANOC